This invention relates to rotary cutter tools and more particularly to a cutter head which is driven in an oscillatory vertical motion while rotating at conventional cutter tool speeds.
Conventional router heads used for trimming and routing parts fabricated from state of the art materials such as titanium, columbium, inconel, stainless steel, composites, etc., represent such cutter tools and most of these suffer from a basic condition that the workpiece material does not dissipate heat fast enough for efficient router operation. Elaborate cutter cooling means must be used to prevent destruction of the cutter blade from overheating. The device proposed herein provides for a continuously moving cutter head so that only a small portion of the cutter is in contact with the workpiece during cutter oscillatory motion allowing the cutter to maintain reasonable temperatures and preserving cutting temper of its work surfaces. A variety of oscillatory or moving head work tools has been used in existing technology. U.S. Pat. No. 3,538,646 provides a cam/roller arrangement to operate a reciprocating grinder head, while U.S. Pat. No. 1,849,868 uses cam follower type differential gear ratio driver means to provide slow oscillatory motion of a high speed grinder head. Neither of the above provides the spur gear-worm gear versatility of the within invention which provides for almost unlimited variations of oscillatory frequency, degree of travel and rotary cutting speed.
It is a primary object of this invention to provide a rotary cutter mechanism designable for all types of router conditions and material useage which shows continuous oscillatory translation of a rotary cutter blade during cutting operations. A further object is to allow the use of oscillating head rotary router blades for all types of materials in both fixed tooling and hand held cutters.